IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 173 – Diagnosis and Fix

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

After an unclean shutdown a filesystem refuses to mount. Application data is unavailable until the filesystem is checked and repaired.

Environment & Reproduction

Occurs to JFS2 filesystems where inline log is dirty after power loss.

mount /appdata 2>&1 | head
oslevel -s
uname -a

Root Cause Analysis

Cause is dirty log state. Mount aborts to prevent further corruption until fsck replays or repairs the structure.

Quick Triage

Run informational fsck before allowing changes.

mount /appdata 2>&1 | head

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Capture deeper evidence to isolate the failure path.

mount /appdata 2>&1 | head
fsck -p /dev/fslv03
errpt -a | head
lsfs /appdata
lquerylv -L fslv03

Solution – Primary Fix

Apply the proven primary fix in a controlled change window.

fsck -y /dev/fslv03
mount /appdata
logform /dev/loglv00
mount -a

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Use these alternatives when the primary fix is blocked by environmental constraints.

umount /dev/fslv03
backup; recreate; restore
restore -rqf /backup/appdata.bk

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Confirm the system meets acceptance criteria after the change.

mount | grep /appdata
df -g /appdata
lssecattr -F /appdata | head

Rollback Plan

Revert cleanly if regressions appear during validation.

umount /appdata
fsck -y /dev/fslv03
mount /appdata

Prevention & Hardening

Reduce recurrence with monitoring and preventive tuning.

errnotify -a 'en_name=jfs2_log_bad'
UPS for power protection
periodic mksysb

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related to LVM bad blocks, hdisk MPIO loss, and snapshot interference.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.3.

View all aix-7.3 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

IBM AIX 7.3 JFS2 administration, fsck and logform references.